What are your too ***SPICY*** to handle hot takes of the trilogy?

FTFY

Mass Effect 3 should've had at least the same development time that Mass Effect 2 got, given the scope of the project and what it needed to do (end a beloved trilogy in a satisfactory matter). I think a lot of the problems with the game would've been solved if they had more time to work on those problems.

Woah man, that's a scorching hot take there.....

Okay, here's a few:

1. Tali's romances should not have been a sexual one. This is an opinion I've expressed numerous times, but it completely trivializes the plight of the Quarians. They go from a race that on numerous occasions explicitly mention how if they are exposed to the outside world they die. That makes them wanting Rannoch go from a want to a need, since that place is the only one in the galaxy where they might have a chance to rebuild their immune systems. But in this romance, Tali proves that if you take some medication beforehand they'd be able to acclimate anywhere within a few months after only a few exposures. There is now no weight behind their troubles, and instead just makes them seem super picky for some reason.

2. The sacrifice of Virmire is the worst part of ME1. I don't mean in that it sucks for the player, I mean it sucks as a plot device. Having situations where you don't get both ways can absolutely work, for example Mordin's or Legion's deaths in ME3 since either they die or a race is doomed. Virmire is not one of those situations, but forces so many contrivances on you (like why not have your other squadmates help, or why even defend the bomb after its armed since it is stated to be impossible to stop) to try to make it a dramatic moment purely for drama's sake. We even know Bioware did this for that reason since originally you could save both.

3. The characters of the Mass Effect Trilogy, especially Mass Effect 2, are not very good characters. People complain about the MEA cast, but they are objectively better characters for a simple reason: they have character arcs. Cora realizes the dangers of idolizing people as well as her inferiority complex and grows from that, PeeBee realizes that having people by your side is a good thing and grows from that, Drack realizes he isn't a worthless old relic but has people care for him so grows from that, and so on and so forth. Meanwhile, within each game the characters in the Shepard Trilogy don't grow or have character arcs, or only grow if romanced (with a few exceptions like Garrus potentially learning that revenge won't solve anythhing ut even then he had to learn that twice). Mordin is exactly the same at the beginning and at the end, Jack only grows when romanced, etc. Yes, they grow between games, but that's not very good writing. The characters in Star Wars or Lord of the Rings or the MCU all still grow in each movie they're in instead of just between them. And it's not like Bioware didn't know this, since their games before it had these. Bastila, Carth, Mission, Juhani, Zaalbar, etc all grow and have arcs in KOTOR.

Out of curiosity, what growth did Mordin and Miranda have in ME2? They are no different from the start to the end, Mordin even literally shelving the possibility of character growth since when asked about the mission he says "What about it? Have it over there somewhere." There is certainly potential in their quests, like him realizing a big picture is made of little pictures, but it never goes anywhere until the next game. That's why ME2 is the worst offender of the three for me. ME1 and ME3 okay the focus is mainly on the plot (not an excuse since other ganmes they did like this still had arcs for their characters) while ME2's focus was on the characters even up to the point it hurt the plot of the game and trilogy, so even with all these quests focusing on them most have no development, the seeds planted perhaps but not grown until ME3. 

And yeah even Anthem, the Bioware game that didn't have companions, still has all the characters experience growth and have arcs.

REALLY I MEAN REALLY!?!? Miranda doesn't change at all!?!? She is the worst example to pick. She goes from a Cerberus loyalist and apologist to slowly realizing what Cerberus is, even defying TIM in the end. Her romance makes it even more obvious.

I have her with me on every mission because of her squad bonus even when I don't romance her, so I may get more a sense of her change then others. Now in ME3 her entire arc is a rehash of her loyalty mission. It is why I don't romance her often when playing male shep, and tend to romance Ash(the drunk scene almost almost ruins it for me though). Man I miss ME1 Ash....

While on that subject. I hate what they did to Ash, she was by far the best fit for how I RPed my Shepard. I even bought the confrontation in ME2, and felt it suited Ash better then Kaidan. But ME3, why why Miranda-fy her. Ok let her hair down outside of combat I can even buy that, but loose while in combat, that isn't Ash. And getting drunk on a Warship while it is on the front lines of a war and Ash is all about being the best soldier possible and staying above reproach. She had moments of the old Ash and it is just enough to satisfy me but man that drunken scene in my first ME3 playthrough I stopped and started a second with a Miranda romance only to stop that and comeback to my Ash play through.

Mass Effect 2 should've been about introducing the Reaper Wars, and splitting the plot into two games, instead of only one. The game's plot, which is already weak by itself, serves nothing in purpose of the trilogy.

I have a similar view, as I do love ME2, but it's undeniable how little it contributed to the trilogy in regards of the main plot. Granted, if ME3 had enough development time, it could fix many problems with ME3, in my opinion, but the latter remains a complicated game to develop by focusing on the Reapers War, by itself.

Not necessarily Rannoch and Tuchanka, but yes, having the game focusing on building the alliances and resouces to fight the Reapers, before they arrive, and then focusing fully on the war in the third game, without needing to divide the plot in the alliance gathering, would've been better.

That could have happened if ME1 was ME2. Here's how ME2 could be the first game followed by ME1 and ME3. With the way it's now, I would have ME2 be about traveling to darkspace to find a way to stop the reapers while the collectors are just a long side mission. For that to happen, a few things would need to be different in ME1.

With ME3, and the time they had with the amount of stuff they put in it, I would have made it into two games.